Bio Anthro Exam 3

Discuss the impact of social hierarchies in primate groups as reflected in female reproductive success

Group size and dominance rank impact female reproductive performance (Small groups/high ranks have a higher reproductive success, the opposite is true too)

Define subsistence strategies and differentiate between food foragers and food producers

-subsistence strategies= How people obtain food and other raw materials from their environment -Food foragers find food (hunting/ gathering) -Food producers grow food (animal domestication/ farming)

Discuss the three characteristics of food foraging groups as they relate to social inequality

-Egalitarian (Equal rights to resources/equal social respect, everyone has pretty much the same as everyone else) -Nomadic (they done accumulate property) -Don't really claim land as property (??)

Define and differentiate between achieved and ascribed status how this reflects on the presence/absence of social inequality

-Achieved status is earned -Ascribed status is assigned/inherent (born w it) Having ascribed status will lead to the same people having privilege while those who don't have ascribed status are always going to be of a lower status. Meanwhile, having achieved status in a society allows for people to equally earn what they deserve/have earned no matter what privilege you were born into

Define egalitarian social structure and compare to social stratification

Egalitarian social structure=equal rights, social respect, and there is no special treatment -they are different because egalitarian societies have little to no social differences while that is exactly what divides people in social stratification

Define nomadic, sedentism, social stratification

-Nomadic= constantly moving/no permanent home -Sedantism= living in one place for a long time -Social Stratification= how a society categorizes its people into groups based on things like wealth, race, etc.

Discuss those characteristics of food producing groups that can be used as archaeological evidence for the emergence of social inequality

-Public architecture (usually large scale mobilization of labor done by lower classes) -Dwellings (and how different they were from each other) -Burials (How elaborate they were, grave goods, etc.)

Define and distinguish between the different types of food producers

-Pastoral societies (herding and care of domesticated animals--animals=wealth) -Horticultural societies (Small scale farming and simple technology--accumulation of property/land=wealth) -Agriculture (Cultivation of animals, plants, etc.--Development of large urban centers and increase of population led to wealth/power coming from the ownership of resources and land)

Define medical anthropology and be able to differentiate between the three different subfields

-They study of human health and disease, healthcare systems, and biocultural adaptation -Medical ecology= Ecological factors and how problems in the environment impact human health (both a cultural and biological view) -Ethnomedical analysis= how different cultures view/treat/prevent disease (Eastern vs western medicine) -Applied medical anthropology= the intervention, prevention, and policy issues and analyzes what causes differences in access to medical care (??)

Define health maintenance system and be able to differentiate between cosmopolitan and humoral systems

-how a culture/society deals with health/sickness -Cosmopolitan focuses on research, technology, surgery, etc. -Humoral focuses on how health reflects the balance of bodily humors (essences like chi, nu, etc.)

Discuss what it means to live in a pluralistic society in reference to heath maintenance systems

A pluralistic society is one where there are multiple diverse beliefs and everyone tolerates the others beliefs even if they don't match up. It means that we live in a society where people use both holistic as well as thoroughly researched medicine (think taking medication vs the many varying ways of getting rid of hiccoughs/drinking different kinds of tea)

Define and differentiate between illness and disease

-Disease is something that needs a cure (Flu, strep, HIV all have vaccines and medicine to prevent them from spreading/getting worse) -Illness is something that needs to be managed/causes some pain or discomfort but there is no real way for medicine to prevent it (they can lessen the symptoms and stuff, but there is no medical cure or prevention) (Allergies, cancer, diabetes, stroke)

Define and differentiate between critical medical anthropology and critical clinical medical anthropology

-Critical medical analyzes the impact of global economic systems on local and national health -Critical clinical medical is a form of social control. Looks at biomedical practice and the --power structure between the practitioner and patient--

Discuss the general historical trajectory of Global Health and differentiate between ‘vertical’ and ‘horizontal’ approaches to heath care

-Tropical Medicine Era-- white mans burden, wanted to improve conditions for political control and extraction of resources; 18th-19th centuries - International Health Era-- Targeted individual problems and patients--Malaria/Smallpox Eradication Programmes; Post WWII, late 19th, early 20th -Primary health care/Alma Ata Declaration-- Universal healthcare accessible to all individuals in a community, critique of disease specific health initiatives/medical elitism, community participation (Horizontal) -Selective primary health care-- GOBI (growth monitoring, oral rehydration, breastfeeding, immunization) and FFF (family planning, female literacy, food supplementation); ignored the leading causes of mortality (Verticle) -Vertical is targeting specific diseases and medical elitism, UNICEF and Rockefeller Foundation World Bank -Horizontal tries to tackle over-all health problems on a long term basis; World Health Organization -

Discuss some of the ways that medical anthropology can contribute to the analysis of global health

-Can provide vital information on environments of risk that contribute to individual diseases as well as syndemics -Shows how the impact of poverty and economic insecurity on patterns of social support and mutual assistance -Shows how health impacts social relations and health citizenship -Can document the impact of short-term(but severe) and extended periods of illness on households/individuals

Define syndemics

The accumulation of two or more concurrent or sequential epidemics in a community/population that enhance the negative outcome and burden of the disease

Discuss the question of “does race exist” from the perspective of biology categorization and social categorization

-Race does not exist biologically. It was created by Carlous Linneas in the 1700s when he gave general, stereotypical and inaccurate description of the four possible races (Red, Yellow, Black, and White). There are more differences between people within a race than between people who don't share a race. There are also not a current exact number or races which makes it hard to prove. -Race does exist socially, though, because for hundreds of years, race was used as a weapon to make people inferior, though it was not scientifically proven. It has since caused social, economic, and political problems for anyone who was not white. -These then lead to problems such as illness and disease that are biological problems

Connect the above “does race exist” to the concept of embodiment and the idea that “race becomes biology”

Racism leads to political, economic, and SOCIAL problems that lead to the negative embodiment of the problems. So though race is not a biological fact, it becomes biological through embodiment.

Distinguish between continuous and discontinuous traits

-Continuous traits are traits that can be either/or (Skin color/hair texture is not just one color or another, height, etc.)-- shows a range of expression -Discontinuous traits are traits that are either one thing or another (attached/unattached earlobe, this or that) --Humans have more continuous traits than discontinuous

Define clinal variation and be able to provide examples

continuous gradient, no clear boundaries between forms (skin color, hair texture, nose shape, eye shape)

Discuss the three points that we discussed in class that refute the statement that Race = Genetics

-Most genetic variation is clinal -Relatively little variation occurs between racially defined groups -Most human/genetic phenotypic variation is nonconcordant

Discuss the significance of the fact that while there is geographic patterning to human genetic variation, it does not mean that there are ‘natural/biological’ divisions in the human species

Other than more adaptive traits due to geographic patterning (such as skin color--places with more or less sun or lung size--places with higher altitudes), natural/biological divisions do not occur (intelligence, fixed set of features). Humans are not going to look a certain way because of their heritage.

Discuss the difference between within-group and between-group variability as it pertains to our discussion of race.

There is often more difference between people in a race than between people outside of a race

Define melanin and how it produces skin color

-Melanin absorbs harmless UV-radiation and transforms it into harmless heat -It's production is stimulated by UVB-radiation and damage to DNA (producing darker pigmentation). -Darker skin is due to a higher level of melanocyte (produced by melanin) activity.

Discuss the harmful effects of UV radiation and how these are potential selective mechanisms in the evolution of darkly pigmented and then identify which of these selective mechanisms is most likely involved in the evolution of darkly pigmented skin

UV radiation can cause problems such that it could lead to natural selection towards more heavily pigmented skin; skin cancer, over production of Vit D, etc. Dark/darker skin allows the UV radiation to be blocked and it becomes much more harmless -Folate deficiencies caused by too much UV radiation cause hyperpigmentation, this shifts melanin production more than ^^^

Discuss how UV radiation is necessary for the proper ossification of bones and how this serves as a selective mechanism in the evolution of lightly pigmented skin

-Ossification=the process of bone formation -When UV radiation interacts with a form of cholesterol in the skin, Vit D is produced which is necessary for bone ossification (why you need to go outside or else your bones become weak)

Identify rickets and osteomalacia as the result of vitamin D deficiencies

-Rickets is a disease found in children caused by a Vit D deficiency -Osteomalacia is the softening of bones due to a lack of Vit d -Both are caused by a lack of vitamin D and cause bones to become weak/deform

Define nonconcordant and how this relates to the race concept

-Traits that vary from one group to another don't vary at the same rate -Skin color is independent of other traits (just because someone is white does not mean they will be super tall or have blue eyes) -Your traits are just an amalgamation of what your genes feel like doing

Discuss how social inequality may become embodied and provide some examples from the readings and/or videos

Social inequality causes stress to change the biology of a person. -Stress the Silent Killer=stress causes brains to shrink and chromosomes to unravel -Pfeiffer and Nichter=Poorer countries have less/no healthcare and therefore are sicker and mortality rates are higher, especially when funding is put towards curing specific problems, but not the overarching social problems which allow the medical problems to happen in the first place

Discuss intergenerational inertia and how this may be incorporated into the biocultural perspective

-Something that happens to a woman affects her later generations -If something culturally affects a woman (starvation, poverty, illness caused by inequality) it could impact her uterus and the DNA that will be passed down to her daughter's eggs and her daughter's daughter's eggs, etc.)

Define health and discuss how inequality can impact it

-Being free of disease, illness, or injury -Inequality causes biological changes in people usually due to stress or lack of equal medical care and that impacts the overall health of an individual and their community

Define epigenetics

-The study of changes in organism caused by a modification of a gene's expression rather than an alteration to genetic code. -It happens when a methyl group is attached to the structural part of DNA and blocks that DNA, causing it to be repressed and unable to be copied.

Be able to answer questions regarding the videos Stress – the silent killer

rip

Define violence and differentiate between direct and indirect violence

-behavior that hurts, damages, or kills someone -Direct violence is interpersonal/visible -Indirect violence is a social or cultural problem that ends up hurting an individual or community-invisible

Define and differentiate between cultural and structural violence

-Structural=social forces that harm communities. Allows for inequalities and lack of health -Cultural=social norms that make direct/structural violence seem normal

Discuss how structural violence is structural and violent

-It is embedded into a political/economic organization -It can cause injury to people

Define and differentiate between distal and proximal factors involved in violence and the ecological model of violence.

-Distal (left side) reflect on public health while proximal (right side) reflects embodiment -The ecological model shows the complex interplay between the individual, relationship, social, cultural, and environmental factors

Define and differentiate between demography and epidemiology

-Demography is the study of the structure, size, and distribution of a population and the changes in them due to birth, migration, aging, etc. (Physical changes in a population) -Epidemiology is the study of the distribution, patterns, and determinants of health and disease (study of the spread of disease)

Define and differentiate between mortality, morbidity and fertility

-Mortality= death (humans are mortal bc they die) -Morbid= the state of being diseased (morbid sense of humor=sick sense of humor) -Fertility= the number of offspring born per mating pair

Define heterogeneous frailty and its connection to pre-existing conditions and in turn how these may be related to structural violence

-Individuals in a population vary in terms of them having the same chance of death when compared to other people their age -People with pre-existing conditions have a higher chance of death especially if they get sick with something else on top of that (Someone has AIDS and then gets tuberculosis, which kills them) -Structural violence comes into play when people who are on the receiving end of it are not able to get the help and resources they need to get help with their pre-existing condition (usually stress related)

Define and differentiate between health disparity and health inequality (with examples)

-Health disparity is the difference in health between social groups (Cis-men usually have higher testosterone and therefore have a lower immune system and are more likely to contract an illness/disease) -Health inequalities are health disparities that are caused by social inequalities (Diabetes in Native American's and cardiovascular problems in Black people are much more common then for white people)

Define selective mortality

-People on the receiving end of structural/indirect violence die at younger ages